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Prisons: The Tablespoon Trio - TIME

Author

Ethan Hayes

Updated on March 22, 2026

All three were complete scoundrels—men of violence, bank robbers and chronic, accomplished escape artists, serving 10-15 years in Alcatraz. the U.S.'s famed maximum-security prison island in San Francisco Bay. They were also men of determination and ingenuity, and they may have become the first ever to successfully escape from The Rock.

The convicts were Frank Lee Morris, 35, and brothers John Anglin. 32, and Clarence Anglin, 31. With an IQ of 133,* ;Morris was undoubtedly the trio's mastermind—and to escape from Alcatraz he had need for real, if perverted, intelligence. The island got its name—Isla de los Alcatraces, meaning Isle...

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